Defibrillators & CPR - A Players' Story

According to the British Heart Foundation, there are around 3,200 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Scotland every year. Efforts to improve survival mean that one in ten people now survive such an event, compared to one in twenty in 2015. Continued efforts could improve this even further.
Since experiencing a heart attack over six year ago, popular Hearts walking footballer Paul Burns has regularly raised awareness of CPR training and the importance of defibrillators and has raised thousands of pounds to supply defibrillators to local communities.
Paul is one of life's extremely positive people and is constantly promoting the benefits of walking football to anyone who listens and plays the game in the sporting, encouraging way it should be.
Here is Paul's inspiring story........

"On the 3rd of April 2016, I decided not to go for a run up the Pentland Hills, instead I would go and play football at the Hibernian training ground - a decision that saved my life. On that Sunday morning, I headed off to the training ground for the first time to play football with my fellow “FFIT” (football fans in training) graduates. It’s a wonderful initiative developed across most football clubs in Scotland, if you are reading this and feel a tad overweight it’s well worth looking into.
I travelled like a teenager playing for a new boy’s club for the first time. I was so excited driving to the ground. I arrived with no time to warm up, was told what team I was in and the game commenced. For fifty minutes, I felt like I was rolling back the years. I had only ever wanted to become a professional football player and have wonderful memories of my younger years training with Hibs as a Schoolboy, Captaining Edinburgh Schools and winning a Scottish Juvenile Cup with an unbeatable Tartan/Hutchie Vale team.
I didn’t feel quite myself in the last ten minutes of the match and I was relieved when it ended. However, as it had been such a great match everyone wanted to play an extra half hour. A couple of the guys expressed their concern at how I looked but I didn’t want to drop out and make it an uneven number so decided to take it easy and play. After only about 5 minutes I got the ball square in the nether regions and collapsed. I can remember everything about that day until that moment.
Many thought that I was having an epileptic fit, but they weren’t to know that I was having a massive heart attack which resulted in a cardiac arrest. Hibs Physiotherapist, Kitty Forrest was working that morning and was asked to help. She firstly administered two rounds of CPR and after I failed to respond she used a defibrillator to get my heart back into rhythm. I was rushed to hospital and had stents inserted to unblock my arteries.
It was only when I went back to the training ground a few weeks later that I realised how many people assisted in saving my life that day and I am eternally grateful to each and every one of them. Thank goodness Kitty and the defibrillator machine were at hand otherwise I would most certainly have died.
Following this I was encouraged to give walking football a try and have never looked back, now playing around the country with a great bunch of lads at Hearts (even though I'm a Hibby)
Fortunately it wasn’t my turn on the 3rd of April 2016. My life was saved by the use of a defibrillator. I would encourage every walking football group to have a defibrillator available at every session with as many players as possible trained in CPR.
Thanks for reading my story - Paul"

Paul has helped raise over £13k which has provided several defibrillators and cabinets within local communities through the St John Scotland who do a magnificent job delivering CPR training and supplying defibrillators across the country.

We appreciate that times are currently very challenging, however if you would like to make a small contribution to St John's, please click on:
St John Scotland

If your walking football group are interested in organising a CPR training session for your members please email: info@stjohnscotland.org.uk